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G. Roxby, W. Herbst, E. Williams (Wesleyan U.)
We present some results of a multi-year study of the Orion Nebula Cluster using Wesleyan University's 0.6m Perkin Telescope. As many as 13 years of data are available, in some cases, which allows us to examine the variations of pre-main sequence stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster on an unprecedently long time scale. We find a number of distict types of behavior, which are classified into four or five different groups. We observe some very unusual behavior in a fraction of the stars, and propose explanations and possible observational tests. In some cases we may be witnessing the effects of variable circumstellar extinction related to orbital motions of perhaps proto-planetary concentrations in disks. Periodicity or quasi-periodicity on time scales of years is observed in the light curves of some of these stars. One star, in particular, will be singled out as remarkably periodic over this time.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: groxby@wesleyan.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.